The December 29 Kelantan State Assembly special sitting to implement hudud will be a point of no return for both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

The stand of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn were crystal clear, that hudud laws are at variance with Malaysia’s Constitution that Malaysia is a secular state.

This was also the position of the other MCA and MIC founding fathers of the nation, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan – as well as Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu who was the second MCA President in 1958 and subsequently left MCA and became the second President of Gerakan from 1969 – 1980.

Indisputably, this was also the position of all the founding fathers of Malaysia from Sabah and Sarawak.

If the Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen are allowed to vote in support of the proposal to implement hudud at the Kelantan State Assembly special sitting on Dec. 29, the whole character and basis of Barisan Nasional would have undergone its most radical transformation in the history of the ruling government coalition in the country.Read the rest of this entry »

Thaipusam commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a Vel “spear” so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.

It is an occasion for devotees to pray to God to receive his grace so that bad traits are destroyed.

On the occasion of this year’s Thaipusam, let us all vow to uphold justice and vanquish all forms of injustices so as to realise the Malaysian Dream – a united, successful democratic, prosperous and competitive Malaysia where there is justice, rule of law, good governance, religious harmony and zero tolerance for corruption, and where every Malaysian, regardless of race, religion or region has a rightful place under the Malaysian sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Several top Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders are sitting out of the latest row over who can use the word “Allah”, believing reticence is better than stepping on a political landmine, say analysts.

There have been no statements from top leaders of MCA, MIC and Gerakan, who mainly represent non-Malays and non-Muslims in BN, since a firestorm ignited over Christians insisting they are not bound by a Selangor royal decree and the seizure of some 300 Malay and Iban Bibles by the state Islamic authorities.

“It is a no-win situation for them, so in this case, silence is golden,” Professor James Chin, a political analyst with Monash University Malaysia, told The Malaysian Insider.

He also said that component parties were caught in a bind as anything they say would offend either religious or political groups. Read the rest of this entry »

The Star today front-paged “1 Party for All”, declaring: “Parti 1Malaysia is among the names being considered for Barisan Nasional if its component parties merge into a multi-racial party to meet current political needs and expectations. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who described the proposal as ‘rational’, said an in-depth study should be conducted and a decision made within the next few months.”

Sixty-two years ago, the founding President of UMNO Datuk Onn Jaffar had already made the proposal that UMNO should open its doors to non-Malay membership and UMNO should be renamed from United Malays National Organisation to United Malayans National Organisation.

Onn was too far ahead of his time and he had to leave UMNO when his proposal for an end to race-based politics was rejected by UMNO.

It is better late than never that some in UMNO and the other Barisan Nasional component parties are broaching the subject of an end to race-based politics and race-based political parties – and there can be no denial that the cause of this re-visiting the subject of an end to race-based politics is because of the outcome of the recent 13th general elections.

For a start, the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should admit that he had made a major mistake and misjudgment when he had said on the night of May 5 that the outcome of the 13GE was a “Chinese tsunami”, for analysis of the 13GE has vindicated the case that it was not a Chinese tsunami, but a Malaysian tsunami representing a political awakening of Malaysians transcending race.

Ordinary Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians, have shown that they are more Malaysian-minded and patriotic than MCA/UMNO/BN leaders who have been trying their utmost in the past nine days to racialise the 13th general election results so as to divert attention from the new-found unity among Malaysians, particularly the young generation of Malaysians of all races, for a new Malaysian politics to end racial politics, corruption, cronyism, abuses of power and all forms of exploitation and injustices in the country.

The first and most irresponsible and anti-1Malaysia blow was struck by none other than the advocate of 1Malaysia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who kicked off the racialisation of the 13GE results with his shocking but baseless statement that the 13GE results was a “Chinese tsunami” when it was a Malaysian and urban tsunami!

Najib and UMNO leaders found justification in the racialisation of the 13GE results, calling it a “Chinese tsunami”, from the campaign of the MCA President, Datuk Chua Soi Lek, during the entire 13GE period, warning that if MCA candidates are defeated, the country will be landed with a “two-racial rather than a two-party system”.

Chua Soi Lek was clearly looking for an excuse to explain an anticipated dismal MCA electoral performance in the 13GE, claiming that defeated MCA candidates are victims of a Chinese tsunami and uprising of the Chinese versus the Malays, and that under the circumstances he and the MCA leaders cannot be blamed if they do not do well in the 13GE.Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time in Malaysian history, at least three incumbent Presidents of BN component parties will not be standing as candidates for their respective parties. They are MCA President Dr Chua Soi Lek, GERAKAN President Dr Koh Tsu Koon and SUPP President Peter Chin. They may be joined by a fourth – PPP President M.Kayveas.

Their non-candidacy is yet another indication of the emasculation of the BN component parties under the ‘rule’ of ‘Big Brother’ UMNO. Not only has UMNO forced other BN component parties to ‘return’ seats such as the Grik parliamentary seat (GERAKAN) and the Kuantan parliamentary seat (MCA) and the Pasir Panjang state seat in Perak (MIC) to ‘Big Brother’, there are strong indications that even more seats would be given to UMNO including Wangsa Maju in the Federal Territories (MCA) and the Gelang Patah seat in Johor (MCA) which I will be contesting in for the upcoming General Election.

If this trend continues, the Barisan Nasional (BN) might as well change its name to UMNO Plus since it will comprise of an over-dominant UMNO plus a number of powerless component parties helmed by Presidents whose candidacies are decided by the UMNO President.

Furthermore, by not contesting, these leaders have lost all legitimacy to lead their respective parties within the BN. They will not represent the BN in parliament or in the cabinet unless they take the ignominious road of being ‘back door’ Ministers via the Senatorship route which some, including Dr. KohTsu Koon, have shamelessly done. They will be sitting at the BN table as non-elected representatives while being surrounded by UMNO leaders who are elected representatives.Read the rest of this entry »

If there is any doubt that the time is up for BN, it will be swiftly removed by watching the actions of its minions trying to show their strength and power at the most primitive, gutteral level possible. In scenes that belongs more to a WWE ring than on the streets of Malaysia, the BN hoodlums and hired thugs try to intimidate sensible Malaysians by acting in the most violent, disgusting ways. They have been raining stones and bottles on PR Ceramahs. They have gatecrashed talks and thrown chairs around. They have attacked PR buses. They have tried to kick down the glass doors at LGE’s office. They have even thrown fists at Nurul.
They have also set up their very loud ceramahs in the immediate vicinity of planned PR talks with the intent of drowning out the opposition with their superior sound systems. Everything about them is big, loud, brash. All these were done with the Police simply watching. Tacitly approved by the silence of the BN leadership.Read the rest of this entry »

AUG 1 — If Palanivel is the deeply religious person everyone seems to think and has any moral compunction, he will decline the offer of a cabinet post. But as everyone knows, these MIC leaders have too much of the mandore-quotient to let this opportunity go.

Surely, we will be told that in the name of service to the nation, Palanivel will accept the gratuitous offer for a cabinet post. Why not? It comes with the prestige and the chance to coast along giving the appearance of being hardworking.

What has Palinivel offered? He didn’t win any parliamentary seat. His contribution to Hulu Selangor when he was MP there nearly cost the BN the seat last time. We all heard the folks in Hulu Selangor lambasting him for not being seen in the constituency. He was the invisible man.Read the rest of this entry »

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said that UMNO must reform or it would be reformed.

From recent events, it is crystal clear that Umno and Barisan Nasional are incapable of reform and must be reformed by the people effecting a change of federal government from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Rakyat in the next general elections.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced the MIC President G. Palanivel as his second Indian Cabinet Minister implementing his notorious philosophy spelt out in the Sibu by-election of “Gua tolong lu, lu tolong gua” – when the duty of any responsible government must be to serve all needy Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or political beliefs.

It is this cynical philosophy where essential public services are treated as a barter trade between the government and the people which is the root cause of the host of abuses of power and corruption afflicting the country destroying our national unity and international competitiveness.Read the rest of this entry »

MIC President G Palanivel has made “dubious history” in being the first cabinet minister to obtain the post not by merit, but in a “most blatant ‘I help you, you help me’ barter” arrangement, said Lim Kit Siang.

Responding in a statement today on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s announcement of Palanivel’s ministership at MIC’s 65th AGM in Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) yesterday, the DAP veteran was scathing in what he called “the most cynical cabinet appointment ever made in Malaysian history under six prime ministers”

The DAP advisor and Ipoh Timor MP also pointed out that while Najib had cited his father Abdul Razak having two Indian minister, the difference, said Lim, could not be more different.

“In Razak’s time in 1976, MIC was in a position of strength but today in 2011 MIC is in position of unprecedented weakness,” said Lim.Read the rest of this entry »